IE 207 

L2 M98 
I Copy 1 



('W' 



AN EULOGY 



ON 



LAFAYETTE, 



DELIVERED 



IN BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA. 



ON THE 



NINTH OF MAY, 1835, 



AT THE REQUEST OF 




THE CITIZENS AND STUDENTS. 






BY ANDREW VVYLIE, D. D. 



PRESIDENT OF INDIANA COLLEGE. 



CINCINNATI: 

TAYLOR AND TRACY. 

1835- 



E"2 0-7 



CINCINNATI: 

PRINTED BY F. S. BENTON. 






CORRESPONDENCE. 

President Wylie: 

Sir,— At a meeting of the citizens of Bloomington and students of Indiana 
college, on Saturday, the sixteenth instant, the undersigned were appointed a 
committee, to request for publication, a copy of an address delivered by your- 
self, a week previously, on the life and character of General Gilbert Mortier 
de Lafayette. A compliance with this request will be highly gratifying to 
our citizens, and to none more so than 

Your obedient humble servants, 

DAVID H. MAXWELL, 

BEAUMONT PARKS, . Commtltee 

PARIS C. DUNNING, ^ %.ommiuee 

JOSEPH G. McPHEETERS, 
Bloomington, May 18<A, 1835. 



Bloomington, May 18<A, 1835 

Messrs. D. H. Maxwell, Beaumont Parks, Paris C. Dunning, and Joseph G, 
McPheeters : 
Gentlemen, — A copy of the address requested for publication, in your note 
of this morning, is at your disposal. A desire to cherish the remembrance of 
one to whoni our country and the world are so deeply indebted, and a wish to 
comply with your request, must be my apology for submitting to public inspec- 
tion a performance so far below the merits of the subject whom it presumes to 
celebrate. 

With due sense of that kind feeling to which, rather than the merits of the 
address, I know, I am indebted for your favorable opinion of it, 
I remain, gentlemen, your humble servant, 

ANDREW WYLIE 



#•• 



AN EULOGY 



ON 



LAFAYETTE. 



Friends and Fellow-Citizens, 

The virtues of Lafayette deserve to be celebrated. His 
sacrifices and services in the cause of civil liberty, merit the 
gratitude of all the friends of the rights of man, in both hemis- 
pheres. By the citizens of these United States especially, 
they should be held in everlasting remembrance. Every 
individual of our M^hole republic, however obscure may be his 
condition in life, should be again and again reminded of the 
debt of gratitude which we all owe to the great and good 
Lafayette. The rising generation should be taught to love 
and revere the name, and commemorate the virtues of their 
country's benefactor. His bright example should be ever 
before their eyes. To show to what a pitch of exalted excel- 
lence our nature may be elevated, when its powers are 
animated by generous sentiments, and devoted to honorable 
ends, a specimen should be shown in the life of Lafayette, to 
the delight and admiration of all future ages. Such a specimen 
is, indeed, of rare occurrence in the annals of mankind. The 
conjuncture of trying circumstances which formed the occasion 
of its display, was itself a rare phenomenon; and it ought not 
to pass over without making such use of it as wisdom dictates. 
Like the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, the occasion 
may furnish an opportunity for such observations as may give 
to mankind a more perfect insight into that sublime economy 
M'hich governs their destinies. Sure I am, that, if any one can 
contemplate such a character of singular and exalted excel- 

1* 



ience as the one we are now called upon to celebrate, without 
being made better by it — without being refreshed and exhilar- 
ated by the comtemplation of so many, and such noble virtues ; 
without finding himsdf silently and pleasantly beguiled into 
better and higher thoughts of the human species and their 
destiny; without feeling, as it were, exalted by the company 
and presence of such a man; without becoming more recon- 
ciled to the world, brightened as it has been by a new lustre; 
without, in fine, having his own virtue inspired with new 
vigor, by having brought in contact with him, an object so 
worthy of love and admiration — the fault must be his own. 

I feel deeply sensible, fellow-citizens, how inadequate I am 
to the present occasion. Since the appearance of the oration 
of our distinguished fellow-citizen, John Quincy Adams, on 
the life and character of Lafayette, this feeling has been greatly 
increased, since that has left me no hope of saying any thing 
on the subject which has not already been better said. I, 
mdeed, most sincerely regret that I suffered myself to be 
committed on the subject. It might have been better honored 
by another. But it is too late for regret. You know the 
press of duties that are constantly upon me, and which have 
been peculiarly heavy since 1 came under the engagement 
which I have now come before ^-ou to discharge. Let this 
pass, with your kind indulgence, for my apology, in part, for 
the very imperfect manner of discharging it. 

In the remarks which are to follow, I shall not attempt to 
trace in detail the events which distinaruished the career of 
our departed friend and benefactor. This has been done by 
an abler hand. To sketch, imperfectly, a few only of the 
traits which adorned his character, without entering at all 
into the particulars of his biography, is all that I shall even 
attempt. In doing this, I shall, however, pay some regard to 
the order of events. 

The occasion which first brought Lafayette upon the stage 
of public action, and in the view of the world, was furnished 
bv one of the earliest scenes of our revolution. Bv the 2;lori- 
ous consequences which followed, it has since challenged and 
obtained the admiration of the world. But at the time when 



K 



it attracted the eye and fired the heart of Lafayette, there was 
nothing great or brilHant about it. A colony had risen in 
arms against the parent country. They were a handful of 
men, scattered over the half-cultivated districts of an ample 
territory, which, with hard and persevering toil, amidst perils 
and sufferings the most appalling, they had begun to reclaim 
from the wilds of nature and the dominion of savage beasts, 
and more savage men. To appearance, their attempt would 
have been considered, and by all ordinary observers was ac- 
tually considered, as wild in its origin as it was likely to prove 
abortive in its issue. Of the elements of war, except prudent 
heads, stout hearts, and sinews hardened by toil, they had 
none. The mother country, now their implacable enemy, 
v^^ielded a power more formidable than that of any other single 
nation on the globe, and which, in a recent contest, had come 
off proudly victorious over two great nations combined. To 
the ruling powers of Europe the cause of the colonists was in 
itself odious, as well as contemptible. It was the cause of 
subjects rebelling against legitimate authority; of the weak 
inconsiderately rising against the mighty; of upstart preten- 
sion presuming to interrogate privileged prescription on his 
right to rule. Lafayette belonged, by birth, to that class of 
men M'ith whom these views and feelings were habitual and 
familiar — handed down from age to age. Born a peer of the 
realm of France, and of one of its most distinguished families, 
and heir to a princely inheritance, he was secluded by fortune 
from all participation in the feelings and experiences of that 
part of society whose only concern with government, accord- 
ing to the received doctrine, was to hear and to obey; to suf- 
fer and be silent. ' To this class we belonged; a class, which 
in France, is known by an epithet too opprobrious to be even 
translated into our language. We were, besides, foreigners 
to Frenchmen. A vast ocean rolled between us. More still: 
we were of a race between whom and them war had raged 
from age to age, and from century to century, almost without 
cessation or respite, or even truce. Their armies and ours 
had often met in deadly conflict on this very soil. Besides, in 
religion, manners, language, temper, every thing, we were a 



8 

different people. Like oil and water, our bloods would not 
commingle. 

Besides all this, at the time to which I refer, Lafayette was 
in the bloom of youth ; his affections to home, kindred and coun- 
try increased and strengthened by the marriage tie, contracted 
recently with a young lady in rank, fortune and accomplish- 
ments, entirely worthy of his choice. Add to all these con- 
siderations, the fact, that the government of France was 
apprized of Lafayette's intentions in coming to our aid — for, 
the slightest movement of a person so conspicuous could not 
escape the jealous eye of power — and had taken measures to 
prevent their execution. Yet, bound as he was by so many 
silken bonds, fascinated by so many enchantments, and bless- 
ed, substantially blessed, with every thing which could render 
home delightful — so powerful was the impulse which moved his 
generous nature, that from the first moment when he heard the 
story of our cause, our wrongs and our magnanimous appeal 
for redress ' to arms and to the God of hosts,' he could not rest: 
the call of humanity oppressed, and of weakness and innocence 
likely to be overpowered and borne down by the ruthless hand 
of power, tingled in his ears like the notes of the war trumpet, 
and he broke away from all — wife, friends, country, rank, 
wealth, honor, life itself: every thing he put in jeopardy; and 
eluding the vigilance of his government, he got ready a vessel 
in one of the ports of Spain, from which he set sail, and on the 
twenty-fifth of April, in the year seventeen hundred and se- 
venty-seven, he arrived safe in the harbor of Charleston. South 
Carolina. 

Such, fellow-citizens, is a brief recital of the first decisive 
movement made by the youthful hero in our behalf. What 
were his motives? This is a question which cannot always 
be answered with certainty. Most of human actions result 
from different inducements united, and tending to the same 
point — some more, some less pure. But there are cases 
wherein all ignoble influences lead in one direction; and but 
the single motive of the great, the good, the noble points in 
the opposite direction. It was clearly so here. Lafayette 
would have been just; he might have been virtuous; he might 



have been generous and brave, had he remained in France: 
but he would not have raised his name for these virtues, above 
the level of ordinary attainment. But the course he actually 
adopted and pursued, showed him to be possessed of virtue of 
no ordinary grade, and placed his name on high amongst the 
brightest constellations in the firmament of the world's history, 
where it shall remain, as long as time endures, a luminary of 
the first magnitude, shedding its beams of glory on the most 
distant ages and nations. Others have nobly done and nobly 
suffered in the cabinet and in the field, for their own country. 
Some have even been moved by sympathy for their brethren 
of the human family, suffering in foreign lands, and have gen- 
erously ventured life and fortune in their behalf. To Lafayette 
belongs the peculiar glory of devoting himself to the deliver- 
ance from foreign domination, of a people and a country to 
whom he was not only bound by no ties of interest or obliga- 
tion, but who were not, as yet, acknowledged as a nation, but 
stigmatized as a confederacy of traitors and rebels, and of 
putting to hazard in their cause the splendor of youth, rank 
and affluence, the favor of his government, and the attractions 
of power. Magnanimous philanthropist ! our warmest expres- 
sions of admiration fall below thy praise ! 

If envy itself could fix upon a circumstance that might be 
considered, in the smallest degree, derogatory from the merit 
of so much generosity, a spot in a disk of such overpowering 
brightness — that circumstance, that spot, it may be supposed, 
would be found in the fact, that Lafayette belonged to that 
class of the French people, with whom the virtues of chivalry 
might almost be considered as hereditary, and whose rank in 
society would suffer degradation in the person of that indivi- 
dual, belonging to it by birth, who should fail to illustrate the 
line of his genealogy, by new displays of virtue added to its 
hereditary glory. And since their rank and wealth gave them 
the power of distinguishing themselves by generous deeds, and 
as such deeds passed with them as no more than the ordinary 
doings of their eyery-day life, it may be imagined that La- 
fayette, in espousing our cause, was moved, not chiefly, or, at 
least, solely, by moral considerations, but by the impulses of 



10 

that spirit of chivalry, and thirst for fame and deeds of arms, 
which, from time immemorial, had distinguished the noblesse 
of France, and may be considered as resulting from the genius 
of tlie feudal systems of Europe, to whose nobility it belongs, 
as one of the prerogatives of their r^ink, as well as a perma- 
nent trait in their character, to seek the post of danger in the 
front ranks of war. 

All that is contained in this suggestion, may be frankly 
granted, without detracting in the slightest degree from the 
merit of Lafayette. Not only so, but if properly considered, 
it will redound to his glory. 

We, indeed, are strongly prejudiced against a class of men 
of whom so much evil has been said, and whose hereditary 
prerogatives of wealth and power are so foreign from the 
genius of our free institutions, and so revolting to our gener- 
ous feelings of republican equality. Yet, with all the evils of 
hereditary greatness, it is not without strong tendencies of an 
opposite character. An exalted grade in society more exposes 
the one who occupies it, to the observation of the world, and 
consequently renders him more sensible to considerations of 
reputation and honor. The stock of glory derived from 
ancestors, as it is committed, successively, to the keeping of 
each heir to the distinctions of noble birth, must be preserved 
with a care and fidelity becoming the depositary of such a 
trust. Disgrace falls with blasting effect upon the miscreant 
who suffers himself to forget from what lineage he derives his 
origin and titles of respectability. But if the peer is neces- 
sarily subjected to the salutary influence of such considera- 
tions as these, let it not be overlooked, on the other hand, 
that he is exposed to temptations which the frailty of our 
nature finds it dilBcult to resist. His wealth lays open before 
him the avenues of refined sensuality. His condition exempts 
him from toil and trouble, and exposes him, on the one hand, 
to the calls of lawless ambition; on the other, to the solicita- 
tions of inglorious ease; into the one or the other of which, he 
will be in danger of falling, according as his constitutional 
temperament may be inclined. A circle of flatterers contin- 
ually surround him, eager to offer incense to his vanity, and 



11 

to basely cater to his appetites. When all these corrupting 
influences are duly considered, we should perhaps be rather 
surprized, that the ranks of the nobly born should have fur- 
nished instances of men whose virtues were no less exalted 
than their condition, than that they should have abounded in 
characters who have degraded themselves below the level of 
ordinary insignificance, or sunk below the depths of vulgar 
baseness. That the descendants of the ancient nobility of 
France, at the period to which our remarks refer, were not 
preeminent for those virtues which are peculiarly appropriate 
to their order, is undeniable. To philanthropy, to a disinter- 
ested and generous zeal for the rights andliberties of man, they 
made, in general, no pretensions. These considerations serve 
to enhance the merit of Lafayette ; as they show, that, in his 
zeal for liberty, and his sympathy for the rights of men be- 
longing neither to his own order nor even to his own nation, 
he has the praise of being not only first among his peers, but 
singular among them. And if the weight of influence and 
wealth, which Lafayette brought with him to our cause, be 
ascribed wholly, and the spirit of chivalrous enterprise which 
actuated him, be ascribed, in part, to his condition and rank; 
still, the merit of directing these powers and this fieiy spirit 
into a worthy channel, is due entirely to the man. And this 
merit is the greater, because all selfish considerations lead in a 
direction opposite to the course which he adopted. Had not 
Lafayette been a peer of France, his interposition at the 
critical moment would have been of no avail ; had not the 
peer of France been Lafayette, he would not have interposed 
at all. 

In the same point of light, it is proper to consider the pecu- 
niary aid so opportunely rendered by Lafayette to our coun- 
try during the struggle for independence. The funds he 
expended in furnishing the vessel which first transported him 
to our shores, in raising and equipping for service an entire 
regiment in the early part of the war, and of procuring the 
necessary supplies for the destitute and dispirited troops that 
followed his standard in Virginia, during the campaign of 1781, 
at a time when Lord Cornwallis, with an overwhelming force 



12 

was spreading devastation and terror through the South, were 
the avails, it is true, of a princely estate, which, without any 
merit on his part, had fallen to his inheritance. But shall the 
amount and efficiency of services so promptly rendered, de- 
tract from the praises of him who rendered them? Absurd 
idea! Who does not know, that it does not belong to rank 
and affluence to generate liberality and generosity? Their 
tendency is to produce selfishness and avarice. Men are gen- 
erally found to be tenacious of their possessions, and even 
anxious to extend them, in proportion to their amount. High 
rank loves to set itself off in a style of corresponding magnifi- 
cence, and to dazzle the eye of vulgar admiration, by a vain- 
glorious display of pomp and equipage. Immense revenues 
are requisite to keep up the show and parade of fetes and 
balls and entertainments, with a dissolute retinue of liveried 
servants, retainers, dependents and flatterers, which are 
usually thought necessary to compose the state of pampered 
greatness. Hence it is, that profligacy and rapacity usually 
go together, qualities which, generally speaking, have been 
quite as conspicuous as generosity and beneficence in the 
lives and conduct of the nobility of Europe. Be it remem- 
bered, that Lafayette, though he could vie with the proudest 
of his compeers in wealth, and all those gaudy distinctions 
which gratify the taste, and pamper the pride of vulgar great- 
ness, chose rather to expend his treasures in feeding the hun- 
gry, clothing the naked, and arming and cheering the dispir- 
ited and feeble bands of patriot militia, who were fighting 
the battles of an oppressed and wasted country. This was 
true glory. 

But this was not all. Though it is enough to raise him 
above the grade of ordinary merit, and far more than enough 
to give him preeminence above his fellows in rank and station, 
and even above what the majority of them could adequately 
conceive, yet it is but the beginning of the praise of Lafayette. 
For, he not only expended his wealth, as I have said, in re- 
lieving the necessities and encouraging the hearts of the des- 
titute and half-famished patriots of oui revolution, but he 
shared their toils, their privations and their dangers, fought 



13 

a volunteer in their ranks, and shed bis blood in then- defence. 
His money he might have contributed to their relief, though 
he had remained at home in the quietude of La Grange, and the 
bosom of his family. But such a course did not satisfy his 
generous zeal. He knew that his presence here, in the midst 
of the scene of conflict, was needed, to inspire fresh vigor 
into the languishing cause of liberty, and that his personal 
efforts in the field of battle would strike terror into the ranks 
of her enemies, and do something effectual towards diminish- 
ing their numbers, and disappointing their hopes. Or, if he 
should fail in this, he knew — for he had sounded the depths of 
his resolution — his was no inconsiderate undertaking — it is 
impossible that such a man should have adopted the choice he 
. did, without deliberately weighing alternatives — he knew he 
could die — die by the fire, or the bayonet of the foe — die, far 
from his country and his home, and leave his lifeless body in a 
foreign field, to be trampled by the hoofs of insulting cavalry; 
and his name to be scoffed at by the minions of arbitrary 
power. 

The space which I have prescribed for these remarks leave 
room for but little to be said as to the military virtues of La- 
fayette. These have attracted the less notice, because they 
are surrounded, if not eclipsed, by other shining qualities in a 
character which is all over luminous. In this respect he 
resembles our own Washington, who though justly pro- 
nounced * first in war,' has been on this account the less 
admired, because he was also 'first in peace.' But if Lafay- 
ette were not entitled to our highest veneration for the other 
great qualities which adorn his character, his military talent? 
and conduct alone, employed as they always were on the side 
of justice and humanity, would entitle him to a conspicuous 
place among the names of those who have been distinguished 
in war. During the war for independence, the superiority in 
numerical force and all the various resources subsidiary to 
war, especially in that skill and patient endurance which vet- 
eran troops necessarily possess over militia, and in the many 
advantages resulting from the possession, on our coast, of a 
numerous and well-appointed navy, giving them the command 

2 



14 

of all our bays and inlets, belonged to the enemy. The policy 
on our part, was, whenever it was possible, to avoid pitched 
battles; and to harass and weaken the enemy by minor oper- 
ations. In such a state of things, true military talent will as 
often display itself in retreating as in fighting. In both these 
respects Lafayette, during the five years which he spent in 
arms in our cause, was eminently distinguished. The retreats 
of Napoleon, unquestionably the first name on the scroll of 
military fame, were always disastrous. Lafayette always 
eflected his retreat in safety and good order. In the attack 
he was prompt, resolute and daring. I cannot enter into a 
detail of historical facts to illustrate the truth of these remarks. 
Let the retreat of our troops after the defeat at Brandy wine, 
which he conducted so ably, although suffering from a severe, 
wound received at the time from a musket ball; and that series 
of skilful movements in Virginia during the campaign of '81, 
by which he outmanoeuvred and baffled the veteran Cornwal- 
lis, who said ' the boy could not escape him' — let these serve, 
by way of specimen, to justify the first of the foregoing 
remarks. Let his intrepid boldness and good conduct at Mon- 
mouth, and in various other actions throughout the war, espe- 
cially in heading one of the divisions of the army w^iich took 
by storm the fortified camp of Cornwallis at Yorktown, jus- 
tify the second. 

It is sufficient for our present purpose, and sufficient for the 
military reputation of Lafayette, to say, that during the five 
years' service, in which the good fortune of our rising coun- 
try and his own choice employed him in arms, he was always 
found equal to the occasion; that he never incurred the impu- 
tation of having neglected his duty, or committed an oversight; 
that he always proved himself, whether acting as the assailant 
or on the defensive, superior to the enemy; and that to the 
end of his brilliant career, he continued to enjoy the increas- 
ino; coniidence of his commander-in-chief. 

A circumstance intimately connected with that part of the 
life of Lafayette to which the foregoing remarks are particu- 
larly intended to apply, in this place specially demands our 
notice, as it is calculated to give us additional insight into hi?; 



15 

character, and neW cause of admiration for his virtues. At 
the commencement of our struggle for independence, the king 
of France, and those who with him directed the councils of 
the nation, would not by any act, or even by any connivance, 
commit themselves to our cause. We were rebels and un- 
friended. They would not provoke the jealousy of the mother 
country by any thing which might look like partiality to our 
interests. Consequently Lafayette, as we have before seen, 
incurred the displeasure of his government by embarking for 
our shores in 1777. But in the course of that year, the rebel 
colonies, through the blessing of Heaven in calling men of spi- 
rit and foresight to take the lead in our affairs, had been trans- 
formed into the United States, declared free and independent. 
And the capture of Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga, an 
event which took place near the close of the year, stamped 
the declaration with the promise of fulfilment. What effect 
these things produced upon the court of Versailles we may 
■easily imagine. A treaty of commerce with the United States 
and France followed in February of the ensuing year, soon 
after the news of the brilliant affair of Saratoga reached the 
hitherto dull ears of Lewis and his court; and this treaty of 
commerce eventuated in a treaty of defensive alliance in war. 
The sharp twang of yankee rifles, we see, was prompt and 
effectual in the drowsy ear of majesty, and added persuasive 
force to the eloquence of Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin. 
Now mark the conduct of Lafayette, and see how, in the high 
character of the philanthropist and the friend of liberty, in 
which hitherto we have viewed him, there shine forth the vir- 
tues of the patriot and the milder lustre of the domestic affec- 
tions. He seizes the first bright interval, which the events 
just noticed had given to our affairs, and obtains leave of con- 
gress to return to France, now, in consequence of her alliance 
with us, involved in war, urged by a sense of his duty (I use 
his own words) as well as a love of his country, to present 
himself before the king that he might know in what manner 
he should think proper to employ his services. Enthusiasm 
and even fanaticism may sometimes, in their wild and irregu- 
lar impulses, propel a man for awhile along the path of noble 



16 

actions. But in the conduct which originates in these vaga' 
ries of a lieated imagination, we never see that beautiful pro- 
portion, that steady consistency, that nicely adjusted propri- 
ety which is the result of virtuous principle. One duty will be 
neglected, and one interest sacrificed for the sake of another. 
Sometimes the most flagrant enormities will be perpetrated 
under the imposing sanction of the one engrossing passion, 
which, under the guise of some sacred name, has taken exclu- 
sive possession of the soul. Such was not the character of the 
man whom we are contemplating. He was no weak enthu- 
siast, whom some freak of fancy had captivated and impelled 
into the society of men embarked in a noble enterprise, no 
wayward renegade, who, while assisting in the deliverance of 
a people from oppression on one continent, could forget that 
he had on another, a country, a home and a government, to 
which his affections and allegiance were primarily due. The 
claims of country and kindred, as they are nearer, so in gen- 
eral they should be more strongly felt, than those which lie 
remote in the wider circle of our relations to the human race. 
But when suffering, which itself imposes an obligation on for- 
eign aid, is added to the latter, an exigeiicy is created which 
inverts this order, and while it lasts gives to them the prece- 
dence before the former. Lafayette acted on this maxim. He 
p'ave to our cause the weight of his. wealth, name and personal 
efforts, when that cause was at its utmost need; but w^hen he 
saw it begin to preponderate, he obeyed the voice of nature 
and duty and returned to his native country. But during the 
year which he spent there he was still assiduous and untiring 
in his zeal for our cause. After his return to the scenes of 
war in 1780, he continued, as is well known, to display the 
same gallantry and good conduct for which he had been before 
distinguished, till the last campaign of the revolution was 
closed by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, his bra- 
very on that occasion adding new lustre to his brilliant career. 
It remains that we view the character of Lafayette as it was 
displayed in the scenes of that revolution in the government 
of his own country, which followed so closely the one which 
he had exerted so great an influence in bringing to a success- 
ful and glorious issue in ours. 



17 

The view which I shall endeavor, as briefly as possible, to 
present to you, of the part acted by Lafayette in the course 
of that wonderful, and in some respects atrocious revolution, 
is one which, I must confess, has left upon my own mind a 
deeper inipression and a higher admiration both of his talents 
and virtues, than have resulted from that portion of his history 
which has just passed swiftly under review; rich though it is, 
in the display of generosity, humanity, patriotism, philan- 
thropy and military virtue. In this I may be singular, but my 
honest conviction is, that the theatre, emphatically the theatre, 
of Lafayette's greatest glory, is the French revolution. Here 
he will, in the eye of posterity, stand in the most amiable as 
well as the most commanding attitude. I speak of him in a 
moral, not in a political sense. In this last respect another 
figure will seem more gigantic than his. But, as seen through 
the pure medium of reason and truth, Napoleon will bear no 
more proportion to Lafayette than a pigmy to a colossus. 

Even a summary of the causes which lead to the French 
revolution cannot nqw be given. Did even time permit, the 
speaker would hardly presume to undertake such a task. In 
order to gain such a view of the person and position of Lafay- 
ette as may answer our purpose at present, it will be only 
necessary to glance at the state of things in France at the 
time when Lafayette was placed at the head of the militia, or 
^i they were called, the national guards of that kingdom. 

The first impulse of the revolution gave rise to the assem- 
bly of notables, composed of men distinguished for their rank 
and wealth. This assembly determined on two important 
measures, which had a powerful influence in directing the 
course of events. The first was, that a convocation of the 
states general should be called: and the second settled the 
ratio of representation which should be adopted by the peo- 
ple in choosing delegates to compose that body; by which it 
was provided, that the delegation from the tiers etat should 
equal, in point of numbers, the representatives of the other 
two estates of the kingdom: the nobility and clergy. Thus 
was composed that famous assembly, which, among other mat- 
ters decisive in their character and consequences, finally 

2* 



18 

inatured and adopted the new constitution, by which France 
in futti,re was to be governed. The state of parties at this cri- 
sis, for it was the crisis of the revolution, stood thus. First, 
there was tlie party of the royalists, who were in favor of the 
government as it formerly existed, and consequently of a 
counter revolution. Second, the constitutionalists, so called 
because they were in favor of the new constitution; a consti- 
tution based on the rights of man and embracing all the essen- 
tials of civil liberty, but retaining, under the name of a king, 
l^ouis the reigning monarch, but shorn of his regal power, and 
swaying instead of his broken sceptre, an executive influence 
really less important than that which the constitution of the 
United States confers on our chief magistrate. Third, the 
republicans. These were for abolishing monarchy entirely 
with all its appendages, root and branch, leaving not a vestige 
of the ancient form of government. Fourth, the jacobins, 
who seemed to have no ultimate or well-defined object in view. 
They were for the most part men daring and reckless in char- 
acter, bankrupt in fame and fortune, and who, as they had 
nothing to lose, looked to the scenes of confusion which 
attended the revolution arid in which they were the principal 
acto-rs, for the means of supporting their profligacy and grati- 
fying their thirst for rapine and blood. Besides these parties 
there lurked through France, and especially m the alleys and 
fauxbourgs of its capital, the partisans of the faction of the 
Duke of Orleans. These were mostly assassins, gamblers, 
rakes and desperadoes of all sorts, whom that infamous prince 
had kept in pay, as the ready and willing instruments of his 
horrible purposes. Lafayette attached himself to the second 
of these parties, the constitutionalists, of which indeed he was 
the leader; and in this capacity he continued to act with firm- 
ness and discretion, till the tumultuous violence of the revo- 
lution dissolved the constitution, and involved the nation in 
anarchy; from which, after passing through the unparalleled 
atrocities of the reign of terror, it was rescued, at length, by 
the strong hand of a military despotism, seizing it with a grasp 
so suddenly and powerfully compressive, that the hydra mon- 
ster which had astonished and terrified the nations of the 



19 

■earth with its frightful bulk and hideous hissings, and maddened 
the multitude everywhere with its poisonous breath, expired 
instantly and without a struggle. Liberty and the constitu- 
tion had been destroyed before, and Lafayette their friend, and 
tor the time, unsuccessful champion, had been, at the same 
time, forced to seek safety in foreign lands. 

To us, in whose conceptions a republican form of govern- 
ment is identified with liberty, and whose successful experi- 
ence, for now half a century, has tested its superior excellence, 
the question will naturally occur, why did not Lafayette attach 
himself to the republican party in France, rather than to that 
of the constitutionalists? 

Our ignorance of the precise state of things, as they were 
when Lafayette declared himself, disqualifies us from deciding 
too peremptorily on the propriety of his choice; but from all 
that we know, and especially from the light which subsequent 
events have cast on the subject, we may safely affirm that 
the considerations which determined his choice in this matter, 
and the course of conduct to which it lead, are the very 
things which give to his character the impress of true great- 
ness; as they show not only the goodness of heart and the 
genuineness of his patriotism, but his firmness and force of 
principle — his wisdom, fortitude, and magnanimity. There is 
no one point perhaps in which we are more liable to mistake 
in our opinions of men than in regard to what is called decis- 
ion of character. Where parties are violent, he generally 
gets the praise of decision of character, who goes to the fur- 
thest extreme of the party to which he is attached. In vulgar 
apprehensions, violence is always considered a proof of 
strength; and moderation an object of scorn, because it is 
taken for an evidence of weakness or indecision. But, is 
there no way of exhibiting strength of character, but by run- 
ning to the poles'? Is a rock less a rock, because at the equa- 
tor? When the storm of party violence rages, is it the chaff" 
which rests in a middle position ? Is it the man of weak mind, 
or weak principles, who exposes himself to the cross fire of 
poltrons, lurking behind the hedgerows of bigotry and fanati- 
cism, on the extreme right or left, during scenes of civil or 



20 

yeligious discord? The man who does not think for himself, 
and who, indeed, all things considered, is least likely to err 
in not thinking for himself, of course, goes with a leader. 
The timid take shelter behind the shield of the brave. The 
selfish go where there is the greatest show of numbers and 
strength. All these herd with a party, and go to extremes. 
The slow, from indecision; the temporizing, from interest, 
may, at the same time, with the man of integrity and firmness 
occupy an intermediate position. But mark the difference: 
the former do not declare themselves till the issue seems no 
longer doubtful; the latter takes his position while difficulty 
and danger surround it. Besides, we are deceived by names. 
When a party changes ground, it still retains the name ; and 
often denounces those who now stand where once it stood. 
The party in France calling themselves republicans, were 
not the same in character and views with those so denomina- 
ted here. They were, as a party, violent, visionary, extrava- 
gant in their notions, and too little under the influence of 
justice and humanity. They were, in short, but jacobins of 
a lighter complexion. Between Regniaud and Robespierre; 
Lameth and Danton; Petion and Marat, the difference was 
only specific. They were of the same genus — the same 
brotherhood. Both parties, in fact, acted in concert at first. 
Both tampered with the mob. Lafayette was in favor of 
allowing to the people, as their just right, the direction of 
government affairs, through the channels of constituted au- 
thority, the action of a free press, and the operation of the 
representative principle. But, on all occasions, he exerted 
himself to repress every attempt by demagogues to impede, 
or accelerate, or aflect in any way the steady and calm opera- 
tion of the constitution and laws, by the demonstration of 
insurgent violence. He studied and pursued, in short, the 
real and permanent good of his country, observing, with the 
utmost caution, the narrow path which separates liberty from 
licentiousness. In such times, beset as he was, on the one 
hand by the jealousy of the king — '■vultus instantis tyranni'' — 
and on the other by the inconsiderate impetuosity of a people 
unaccustomed to liberty, and goaded to phrenzy by unprin- 



21 

eipled agitators'^^' d«jmm ardor prava jubentium^ — to have 
attempted such a course, was proof enough of the strength 
and depth of his moral courage ; to have succeeded in it, as he 
ultimately did, is sufficient evidence of his capacity. 

Lafayette possessed ample means of correct information 
as to the spirit and ultimate views of the different parties in 
the state. It could not, therefore, have escaped his penetra- 
tion, that the leaders of the jacobins, who, on account of the 
complete organization of the affiliated societies, extending 
throughout the realm, as well as by reason of the numbers 
and character of those under their influence, were the most 
formidable, meditated not only the overthrow of the existing 
government and dynasty, but proscription, confiscation, exile 
and massacre, to all who should offer resistance to their absurd 
and impractical design of reducing every thing to a perfect 
equality. He felt, therefore, under the strongest obligations, 
from motives of patriotism as well as humanity, to do every 
thing in his power to prevent these violent and bloody meas- 
ures. It was not the fault of Louis XVI, that he had the 
misfortune to be born of a race of kings, who by the will of 
the nation had for centuries filled the throne of France, nor 
that he should have been destined to reign in a period so dark 
and portentous. The vices of the government belonged to 
the system, and not to the man who, unfortunately for him- 
self, was placed at its head. For Louis, in temper and in 
the tone of his administration, was one of the mildest and 
most lenient of rulers. Why, then, in a change which was 
to bring so many advantages to the nation at large, should it 
be thought necessary to involve him and his family in ruin? 
Why should the first offering to be presented by the French 
nation, in their newly built temple of liberty, be in the form 
of a libation composed of the blood of the innocent? 

Besides, it is doubtful whether, supposing the jacobins 
possessed of skill sufficient, with all the aid to be derived 
from such a bloody offering, to construct a republic, France 
contained the proper materials requisite for its construction. 
Republican simplicity does not suit the French taste. At the 
time of the revolution, a corrupt system of religion had 



22 

debauched the minds of the common people; and a species of 
atheism, the result of this, had deplorably weakened all sense 
of moral obligation in the liigher orders- The plenary power 
of the pope, in spirituals, was an article of their creed: that 
man is a machine, obedient to the laws of necessitrj, was a 
dogma of their philosophy. The actual state of public mor- 
als was such as might be expected from such principles — but 
I shall spare you and myself the pain of a recital. Republican 
liberty cannot exist where there is so much corruption. In 
densely peopled countries, such as was France at the time of 
which we speak, and such as it is now, a degree of energy, 
scarcely compatible with liberty, such as republics only can 
fully enjoy, is necessary for the maintenance of order and 
public tranquility. 

Besides all this, the relative state of France, with respect to 
the adjoining kingdoms of Europe, was to be taken into view. 
The Bourbon dynasty had, on each of the thrones of these 
kingdoms, except that of Great Britain, either an ally or a 
prince of its blood. Violence done to the reigning family in 
France, would be likely to involve it in war with these king- 
doms, if not with the whole of Europe. Every body in 
France expected this. The jacobins distinctly foresaw it. 
I call the party by this name, because they were in fact the 
only efficient party, except the royalists, (and they were weak- 
ened by emigration and massacre) which opposed Lafayette 
and the constitution. The republicans, or girondists, could 
do nothing without their concurrence. The jacobins, I say, 
distinctly foresaw the coming storm which threatened them 
from abroad. And, to provide for it, they trusted to a scheme, 
which shows of what stuff they were composed. Their 
scheme was, by means of their emissaries and publications, 
and the agency of secret societies, to foment and organize 
rebellion against every government of Europe, in the expecta- 
tion, that being severally engaged in quelling insurrection at 
home, they would not have the means of molesting them in 
their attempts to 7'egenerate France — for this was their favor- 
ite phrase — and the world — a work to be performed by the 
pistol and dagger of the sansculotte, the pike and musket of 



23 

the gens d'armes, their own favorite instrument of persuasiony 
the guillotine, and other such means of reformation. Many 
philosophers, men of great name — for the bigoted theorist, as 
well as the stupidly ignorant, can believe any thing — thought 
this a plausible scheme. To the honor of Lafayette's philoso- 
phy, he did not. His practical habits, if nothing else, (joined 
to his native goodness) would have kept him from such 
extravagance. There is, as Burke has well said, a wisdom of 
the heart — a better guide than that of the head — which is the 
crowning excellence in the character of Lafayette. Through 
the sanguinary scenes of a revolution, characterized through- 
out by party violence and deeds of atrocity, he passed with 
skirts unstained with innocent blood. Nor would he suffer 
his honor to be sullied by connexion with any — whether party 
or individuals — who had polluted themselves by the blood of 
their fellow-citizens. 

The constitutionalists, as a party, were dissolved by the 
flight of Lafayette. Soon after this event was publicly known, 
the duke of Orleans returned from his exile in England — that 
citizen, Egalite, (Equality !) who, it is agreed on all hands, was 
the basest man in these times, when ordinary villany might 
have been esteemed a virtue. This man's return was an omen 
of direful presage to France; and I mention it here with the 
flight of Lafayette, and the fall of his party, as the connexion 
of these events serves to show in what light the character of 
the latter stood in the view of all parties at the time. The 
most effective guardian of the public weal had been compelled 
to fly; the spirits of the friends of constitutional liberty and 
social order sank at once; and the dogs and vultures, who for 
awhile had been held in abeyance, returned, with sharpened 
appetite, to scenes of anticipated carnage. 

Whether his flight from France was an act entirely worthy 
of Lafayette, may perhaps admit of some slight degree of 
doubt. It is a question, which, had we the time, we have not 
now the light necessary to solve. All that we know compel 
us to justify, if not to commend, the course he adopted. 
Indeed, he had scarcely another alternative left, unless, to be 
sure, he chose to perish, a useless death, by the hand of an 
assassin. 



24 

On the 20th of June, 1792, he was engaged, on the fron- 
tiers of France, in fighting the allied forces of Austria and 
Prussia, who had invaded the country, with the view — insti- 
gated as they were by emigrants of the royal party, and their 
own fears of revolution — to restore Louis, by force of arms, 
to the possession of those dangerous powers, of which, by the 
new constitution, he had been deprived. On the same day. 
the mob of Paris, amounting to fifty thousand men, paraded 
the streets, broke into the hall of the national assembly, with 
arms in their hands, and thence proceeded to the palace of 
the Tuilleries, where they perpetrated all manner of outrage 
short of actual murder. Lafayette, in company with a few 
officers of his staff", hastened to restore order to Paris, which 
having done, he returned to the army. ' The poor people — the 
virtuous people,' as Robespierre was wont to call the rabble of 
Paris, had been prevented from accomplishing their violent 
purposes, and Lafayette, who had stood firm for the constitu- 
tion and social order, in opposition to their sanguinary tumults, 
was secretly, by their leaders and instigators, devoted to des- 
truction. An impeachment was urged against him in the 
assembly by these men — selfstyled republicans. But his 
friends were firm, and it did not pass into a decree. With 
the mob, their attempts were not so easily defeated. A mob 
accordingly was raised on the famous 10th of August. The 
issue of this decisive movement was, that the commander' of 
the militia of Paris, and hundreds besides, were assassinated; 
the Swiss guards, the body guard of the king, publicly massa- 
cred, and the king and royal family imprisoned, and ultimately, 
with the exception of a young female, the whole of them — 
king, queen, princess Elizabeth, the princess Lamballe, and 
the dauphin — murdered: the two former, by the guillotine, 
after undergoing the mockery of a trial; the two princesses, 
by the pikes of the mob; and the dauphin, a tender youth, by 
the abuse of an inhuman jailer, acting by direction of the 
more inhuman assembly. The same mob, which now ruled 
Paris, the assembly, and France, with despotic sway, proceeded 
to the halls of the assembly, which they entered, 'band after 
band,' their faces blackened with powder, their hands and 



25 

weapons streaming with blood from the recent slaughter, and 
demanded — no: petitioned — the assembly to abolish the con- 
stitution. The petition, offered thus modestly, and by such 
worthy hands, was graciously granted by the assembly, and 
three of their number were sent in triumph, to exact, in their 
name, submission to their decrees, from Lafayette and his army. 
Could Lafayette hesitate a moment, whether to submit to an 
order requiring him to acknowledge the acts and doings of an 
assembly, which had, at a blow, demolished the constitution, 
the fruit of so much labor, and so many patriotic sacrifices; 
a constitution, which they and he had sworn to support, and 
which was the only remaining bulwark to protect the liberties 
and lives of the citizen?, from the pikes of confederated ruf- 
fians, who had turned murder into a trade, and who expected 
to support themselves in riot and debauchery, by the price of 
blood? No: but resolving instantly to organize a force, from 
the army under his command, sufficient to quell the atrocious 
banditti of the capital, as soon as he began to sound his troops 
and their officers on the subject, he found that the jacobins had 
planted their spies, friends and agents, in the very heart of 
those companies and battalions, which he esteemed the most 
faithful, and by this means had brought them over to their 
interests. In short, the whole army was infected, and as 
completely under the control of the assembly, as the assembly 
itself was under the control of the mob, or they under that 
of their jacobin leaders. Danton, Robespierre and Marat, a 
triumvirate of fiends, were the absolute rulers of France. 
For Lafayette, there was little hope of safety except in 
flight. 

In attempting his escape, he fell into the hands of the Aus- 
trians, and was subsequently treated as a prisoner of state. 
During his confinement in a dungeon at Olmutz, where he was 
treated with unusual rigor, solicitations were urged, with great 
interest, not only by Washington, and by the friends and 
family of Lafayette, but even by individuals of high standing 
in the British government, for his deliverance. But in vain. 
The emperor of Austria was inexorable; and, in violation of 
the law of nations, and the rights of humanity, Lafayette 

3 



26 

continued to languish in his confinement. Two generous and 
enterprising individuals, whose names will be repeated with 
gratitude, whenever the story of Lafayette's sufferings in the 
cause of rational liberty is rehearsed, resolved to effect his 
deliverance. The one was a citizen of the United States, 
Francis Huger; the other a Hanoverian, Erick BoUman; 
whose nephew was a student in our college, and is now a 
respected citizen of Bloomington. Their plan was well devi- 
sed, and partly executed. But, though entitled to the credit 
of doing whatever prudence, patient perseverance, and bold- 
ness could accomplish in their hazardous attempt, they had 
not the gratification of that complete success which they had 
fondly expected, and well nigh achieved. Lafayette was 
pursued, overtaken, and remanded to the walls of his prison; 
from which at length the victorious sword of Napoleon opened 
the way to his deliverance. For this deliverance, Lafayette 
ever after cherished, and on all proper occasions, expressed 
his cTi-atitude, to the wonderful man who had been, under the 
auspicies of the directory, the instrument of effecting it. But, 
though warmly and repeatedly invited to such a course, he 
never acknowledged the right of Napoleon to rule over 
France, by consenting to take part in his administration. 
Thus he afforded a new and almost singular proof of the firm- 
ness of his principles, and of the sincerity of that stand in 
favor of liberty and the rights of man, which he had so early 
and so nobly taken, and which, through all the labors and 
vicissitudes of his eventful career, he had so strenuously and 
zealously maintained. 

The rule of the directory was of short duration, and France 
was hurried rapidly through the eddies of the succeeding con- 
sular government, into the vortex of a military despotism, in 
which the fragments of the old monarchy, the constitutional 
republic, and the shortlived and illcompacted forms that fol- 
lowed—scarcely deserving the name of government— which 
had been in quick succession wrecked by the fury of the 
revolutionary whirlwind, were engulphed together. In the 
mean time, the public mind in France was seized by a new 
species of frenzy, produced by the splendid campaigns of 



27 

Napoleon. Under the guidance of his daring and fruitful • 
genius, victory followed victory, in such close succession; 
achievments, before deemed impossible, were performed with 
such celerity and ease; the power of the great nation, wielded 
by his hand, discharged its bolts upon the armies and the 
capitals of the trembling potentates of Europe, with such 
sure and destructive effect; that the French people began to 
think themselves omnipotent. Intoxicated with success, and 
dazzled by false glory, they lost sight of that boasted liberty 
for which such immense sacrifices had been made, and so much 
blood had been cruelly spilt. Now, let us contemplate Lafay- 
ette. His mind is not carried away by the epidemic delirium. 
He is not misled by phantoms. His thoughts are still bent on 
the real interests of his country. Fortune has no power over 
him. He remains in quietude at La Grange, and comes not out 
from his retirement to join his voice to the cry of the giddy 
throng, who are shouting after the gilded car of the fickle 
goddess ; nor will he bow the knee to the proud minion whom 
she has raised from the dust to trample on the necks of hum- 
bled kings, and sport himself with their glittering emblems ol 
power. 

A regularly constructed government has been compared to 
a cone; of which the apex represents the highest constituted 
authority — the base, the lower orders of the people, and its 
body the intermediate ranks. If I might speak in language 
borrowed from such an emblem, I would say that powder, dur- 
ing the progress of the French revolution, not only descended 
rapidly along the cone from the apex to the base, but, as if by 
reiterated explosions, burst and shivered to atoms each sepa- 
rate section of the cone, which, in its descent it had left behind. 
First went the hereditary ranks of royalty and nobility; next 
the limited monarchy of the moderes, (which indeed existed 
only in design); next the constitutional republic with the king 
as chief magistrate; next exploded the pure republic of the 
philosophic girondists, bespattering with their blood and brains 
not only. the streets of Paris but the fields of France. After 
this nothing remained but the lowest frustrum, and this was 
soon calcined to ashes by the fires of faction. The structure. 



28 

now dissolved to its elements, was rebuilt by the daring 
genius and mighty hand of the man of destiny. It rose with 
diminished base but towering height — not a pyramid but an 
obelisk, its lofty summit terminating in the dominion of one 
will, and glaring over Europe with the lurid lustre of some 
angry and portentous meteor, shedding disastrous twilight 
over half the nations, and with fear of change perplexing mon- 
archs. In the shock of nations, which took place at Leipzig, 
it fell; and its architect was banished to Elba. After the 
lapse of one short year, during which the Bourbon dynasty 
was restored in France, Europe beheld with amazement the 
prodigious effort of those hundred days, which was made to 
erect again the fallen fortunes of Napoleon. Waterloo ended 
it. And the Bourbon dynasty, supported by the force of 
twelve hundred thousand foreign bayonets, was once more 
replaced on the throne of France. The spirit of Napoleon, 
lofty and daring as it was, was quelled and broken. Lafay- 
ette, the champion of liberty, stood erect. Against the arbi- 
trary proceedings of the members of the holy alliance in pla- 
cing Louis the eighteenth on the throne of France, and in the 
face of their armed force he had made his solemn protest. Now 
he takes his stand in the chamber of deputies, the only strong 
hold of liberty which arbitrary power had left in the posses- 
sion of the people. And when, in 1830, Charles the tenth, by 
four tyrannical decrees, attempted, as at a blow, to destroy 
this strong hold, we see this ever-watchful guardian of the 
people's rights, forgetting the infirmities which age and so 
many laborious services had brought upon him, girding on his 
sword with the alacrity of youth — the alacrity which he dis- 
played at Brandy wine and Yorktown — and repairing to Paris 
to resist the tyrant! He puts himself for the last time, at the 
head of the national guards, whom his presence and voice 
had, as it were, recalled to life ; and thus by his welltimed 
energy, having brought to a successful issue the glorious revo- 
lution of the three days, establishes in France a government, 
in its essential features the very same with that of the consti- 
tution which he had so zealously advocated in the early stages 



29 

of the first revolution, and with the dissolution of which he 
had been compelled to fly from his native country! 

The principles of Lafayette were purely republican. In 
politics he avowed himself of the American school. But he 
submitted to compromise his principles, both when he advo- 
cated and most strenuously supported and defended the gov- 
ernment under the constitution in the early periods of the 
French revolution, and when near the close of his consistent 
career, he recommended to his countrymen the same form of 
government as finally settled and established after the three 
glorious days revolution in 1830 — a form of government hav- 
ing an hereditary officer for its supreme executive. This is no 
derogation from the merit of Lafayette, but the contrary; as 
it shows that he preferred the enjoyment of a great deal of 
liberty to having none at all. A bigoted tenacity to abstract 
principles in matters of expedience — and those pertaining to 
forms of government, however important, are no more than 
such — is no mark of -wisdom. He who would make a coat on 
abstract principles, that is, without reference to the shape and 
size of the wearer, may have the credit of making a very 
sightly garment. But as, in the language of a shrewd politi- 
cian of ancient time, that is a well-proportioned garment which 
is made to fit the wearer, so that is the best form of govern- 
ment which is best suited to the genius and condition of the 
nation which adopts it, and which possesses the further prop- 
erty of selfadjustment and selfpreservation ; like the seam- 
less garment which nature makes for all her children, which 
expands with their growth, and repairs itself when severed or 
bruised by violence or accidental injury. A great change 
must take place in France before she will be prepared to enjoy 
the benefits of a pure republic — such a change as never was 
eflfected, and in the nature of things never can be effected by 
. revolutionary violence. And it may be well for us to bear 
in mind, that this truth has its counterpart, and that when- 
ever a corresponding change, though in an opposite direction, 
shall take place in our own character as a people, a republi- 
can form of vgovernment will not be found the best for these 
United States. Let the country but revert to gothic super- 



30 

stition and gothic manners* — may it never be ! — ^and gothic 
institutions must, and ought to follow. 

As despotism itself is preferable to anarchy, so the tyranny 
of one will is infinitely more tolerable than that of many. The 
sultan is immediately responsible to his subjects, the fear of 
whose cimeters is a check upon the operation of his bow- 
string. But what resource is left to the oppressed, when the 
spirit of ignorance and vice has infected with frenzy the minds 
of a lawless majority? The women and children who were 
baked in ovens at Pillau; the heaps of dead bodies which 
choked the Seine and the Loire; the city of Lyons, the second 
in France, depopulated, and its very houses razed to their 
foundations; and the capital itself so often the scene of mas- 
sacre and consternation during the reign of terror, may answer 
that question. To the immortal honor of Lafayette be it 
remembered — and surely this is no common praise — that he 
was almost the only person of note in the entire nation of 
France, who, throughout the trying scenes of the revolution, 
pursued a course which was equally opposed to the tyranny 
ot the government and the tyranny of the mob, and who was 
honored through life with the hatred of both. 

To conclude, we may safely pronounce Lafayette not only 
one of the greatest, wisest, and best men that ever lived, but 
also — though this praise is due rather to Providence than to 
the man — the most fortunate and happy. The present, indeed, 
is not a state of retribution: yet, there are periods in the his- 
tory of this world wherein, even during the lifetime of indi- 
viduals, moral causes, owing to the quick motion of events, 
are hastened to their appropriate results. That invisible hand 
which is upon the machinery of the world then whirls it round 
with unusual velocity, for the twofold purpose, as it would 
seem, of shortening to miserable mortals the days of evil, and 
ot exhibiting, on this side the impenetrable veil which hides 
the great future from our eyes, a specimen of that just retri- 
bution which, wc may hence the more readily conclude, will 

* Note. — ' The Catholic Sentinel ' speaking of Lafayette, says, 'his memory 
is abhorred by all good and patriotic Frenchmen, as the ingrate betrayer of the 
heroic Napoleon, and the parasite and elevater of the regal poltron, nick- 
named the citizen king.' 



31 

be found in the end to have marked all the divine dispensation. 
Never, perhaps, since the world began, was this truth more 
strikingly demonstrated than in that period through which the 
life of Lafayette was extended. The sons of violence who, 
for their brief day, figured amidst the bloody scenes of the 
revolution, had sown the wind, and they reaped the whirl- 
wind. A horde of infidels, calling themselves republicans, 
taught the populace of France to renounce their God and 
make a jest of an hereafter; and by the rabid fury of that very 
populace, whom their doctrines had converted into wild beasts, 
they themselves were torn to pieces. The monster Marat 
was poignarded by a woman. Napoleon took the sword, and 
by the sword he perished. Toulon saw him first in arms 
against a portion of his countrymen, goaded by violence into 
rebellion; and the weapons of assembled Europe struck him 
down at Waterloo. The same course of retributive justice 
we may clearly discern — though manifested in a ditTerent man- 
ner, as his merits were ditferent — in that series of events, 
which, at last, conducted Lafayette to the consummation of 
his patriotic wishes and plans. In his youth we see him in 
this land, a bold adventurer, come to plant the tree of liberty 
in our soil and to water it with his blood; and when but lit- 
tle past the meridian of life, he returns to witness its majestic 
growth, refresh himself under its shadow and taste its mel- 
lowed fruits. The experime^it which he assisted in making in 
the new world with so much pi'omise of success, he had also 
repeated in the old. There, by the course he adopted, he was 
personally beset with the most unheard of difficulties. But it 
was the only course which offered a rational prospect of free- 
dom and peace to his oppressed and distracted country. For 
awhile disappointment bafl[les his efforts. The dungeon of a 
foreign prison holds his person, while the liberties of his coun- 
try expire in the talons of a harpy faction. But the drama 
is not yet closed. The man of destiny mounts the stage which 
trembles beneath his tread. The prison doors which had con- 
fined Lafayette, fly open. But liberty is not restored to 
France. It lies crushed beneath the throne of the emperor. 
That throne is demolished. That of the Bourbon rises in its 



32 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 801 156 9 



stead— is removed— rebuilt— again removed, and in the revo- 
lution of the three days is demolished— demolished by the 
hands of Lafayette, and by the same hands a government, 
securing constitutional liberty to the people, is reared in its 
stead— a government, in all its essential ingredients, identical 
vi^ith that which he had so zealously labored to establish at an 
early period of the revolution. His life is prolonged lon^ 
enough to see its successful operation, and France, under it, 
contented and happy— but not so long as to see (what would 
have embittered the close of life had he seen it) the country 
of his birth and that of his adoption — the two countries ren- 
dered, partly by his labors, (one of them principally by his 
labors) the freest and most powerful on earth— and united too 
by his labors in the bands of mutual friendship and alliance— 
not so long as to see these countries involved — but here we 
must stop. The future is unknown — God avert the illomen 
that flits dimly before our eyes! He dies— full of days and 
full of honors— with the blessings of the civilized world and the 
everlasting gratitude of two great nations settled on his 
memory ! 

In virtue, usefulness, honor and felicity, what name of mor- 
tal man is furnished by the annals of our race, which can vie 
with the beloved and revered name of Gilbert Motier de 
Lafayette! 



